Chapter Thirty Four
“The Father’s capacity for intelligence is unimaginable. We have given him various Greek mythologies to test his retention, and he was able to recite each to perfection. Only when deprived of nutrition does his cognition decline.”
“Sounds like the perfect weapon to me. Just gotta make sure he’s on our side.”
“Of course, General. That is the goal now.”
–Dr Ava Sherman. Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado, 4 Months After.
* * *
Five minutes left. That’s all Liam had to survive.
It was strange to be at this point. A little more than a week before, Liam had only involved himself in this mission in the hopes of reuniting with his lost family. He had put everything on the line, and staved off the sheer oppressive weight of his task, all because he’d truly believed in the vision he’d foreseen. A zealot to his own personal religion.
Liam had told himself that if this didn’t work out, he’d end it himself. Put a bullet in his brain and hope that he’d see Nelly and Lilith in the afterlife. With them both gone, there hardly seemed any point to continue.
And yet, here he still was. Miles under a mountain, picking off undead monsters as they shuffled his way, his sole companion the knowledge that he’d been manipulated to reach this point. The lies no longer seemed to matter, only that he succeeded in giving them purpose.
Was this still survival, or had Liam adopted something else? Had he slipped out of the prison himself and finally seen the fleeting gift that lay beyond?
The radio whirred. “Liam, it’s Leah.”
Thank God. He grabbed the radio. “Are you alright? Some hollows have reached my position.”
“Yes, for now. I’m sorry, Liam, but I’ve been cut off.”
“Where’s Mastermind?”
She paused. “It’s just me.”
The radio shook in his hand. Not him too. Liam was starting to think that Mastermind would be the only one to see this day through.
“We’ve got a bigger problem,” Leah said. “I’ve managed to thin out as many Hunters as I could, but I saw something in the herd and… I don’t know… I think Hades is coming for you himself. Be careful, Liam. He’s still out there.”
Liam swallowed the lump in his throat and surveyed his environment once again. The government had built this fortress like an underground city, with over a dozen windowless buildings constructed on giant, metal springs to keep from touching the granite walls of the mountain. Perhaps that strategy had been sound when they assumed that a nuclear attack was their greatest threat, but when the enemy was an infinite wave of reincarnated corpses, the empty gaps became their adversary, and it was no surprise this place became overrun so quickly. Hollows could simply squeeze around where they couldn’t enter, and with Liam taking his stand at an intersection on the westernmost part of the tunnels’ grid, his attackers were coming from every direction. There was no way out of it. The secondary bunker had been built behind the missile-warning center, bored straight into the walls of the mountain.
Moans rolled out, and Liam drew his flashlight. He blinked through the dim gloom of the bunker, but could make next to nothing out from the approaching hollows. They all looked so similar.
There you are! Liam fired his Remington. The .308 round tore through what he thought was Hades’s skull, but the hollow fell with a groan, and Liam realized that “he” had been a she.
Another caught his attention, and again he fired, but he noticed the whites of its eyes before it dropped. Another grinned as it drew near, and Liam brought this new Hades down, only to realize that he had miscalculated. Everywhere he turned, he saw the same shriveled corpses coming for him. All withered. All unrecognizable as human. All identical to his real executioner.
Liam cried out against the futility of it all and retreated into the missile-warning center. It was a single-story building with only a handful of compartments. Liam retreated to the final room, where the original monitoring room had once been. The desks and computers had been piled outside as a makeshift barricade, giving Liam just enough room to take shots from the safety of the door. It was the best place to defend. Attackers could only come in from the front. The rearward bridge into the secondary bunker had been covered with steel netting.
The hollows slammed through the entrance, and Liam engaged. With each shot through the head, he mechanically yanked his bolt action back and aimed for another. He had to make every shot count. There was precious little ammunition to hold them off.
A digital timer glowed above the bunker’s retractable steel door, pushing mercilessly down by the second. Two-and-a-half minutes remained before the lockdown ended, and the door could be open. All Liam had to do was defend himself until then. If he could only make it inside that bunker and lock the entrance behind, the hollows would turn their aggression away from him.
He had to believe that. He had to believe there was still a chance for them to make it.
The vent to the roof flew open, and a figure in black dropped through. A halo of dust furled out where he landed, and before Liam could turn his own weapon, a revolver was pointed straight at his head.
Hades tipped his cowboy hat and gleamed. The bastard had outflanked him! So quickly, so easily. Liam had been thwarted.
Hades took a step forth in enthusiastic silence, gun locking Liam in place. But then he glanced over his shoulder and froze. Something else had caught his attention. The timer. He studied Liam, still bewildered where he stood, then looked back to the digital timer above a mysterious door, ominously counting down, and then back to Liam.
The revolver jittered in his hand. “Well, I can’t just…” He once again examined the room he’d fallen into, his eyes suddenly panicked as he looked from side to side.
“Fuck it!” Hades shouted before tossing the revolver aside and breaking into a charge.
The Remington got knocked to the ground as Hades piled into Liam. Stabs rocked his chest as his attacker’s fists delivered spiked blows. Liam threw his own weight in, and knocked Hades back. The two wrestled against one another as the hollows tore into the barricade out front.
Liam had never been much of a fighter, at least in this sense. He didn’t spend enough time in civilization to engage in the act, and martial arts was not exactly at the forefront of survivalist training. Predators were better left avoided in the wild than faced directly, and guns were the great equalizer for any confrontation.
So going against an undead mass murderer was somewhat of an uphill battle. Every hit that Liam managed to land was absorbed harmlessly into his enemy’s eternal frame, and each riposte Hades dealt shredded through his flesh. Within moments of fighting, Liam’s body was on fire from a dozen open wounds.
The hollows howled in a frenzy, and shoved harder against the makeshift barricade. Some started to squeeze through a breach.
“Oh no you don’t!” Hades shouted at the hollows before breaking from their melee and drawing his bolo machete. Heads started to roll wherever he swung his weapon.
Liam lunged for the Remington and wrenched another cartridge into the chamber, but before he could land a clear shot, Hades was back on the offensive. Blackened ichor burst from his shoulder where he took the bullet, and he was again on Liam.
More hollows slipped through the opening as the two went against one another. Liam let Hades remain interposed between himself and the hollows, using the hardwood stock of his rifle to bludgeon his opponent in place. Hades found himself at a sudden disadvantage, now forced to fend off attackers from both sides. But the handicap was short-lived, as he quickly impaled a hollow with his machete and anchored both into the breach of the barricade, cutting off reinforcements. With a grin, Hades rushed back to Liam. Punches fell again like rain in a monsoon, and Liam floundered against the assault.
This was hopeless. No victory could be had against this unrelenting force. Hades moved with the steady and meticulous grace of death itself, delivering blow after blow into his opponent’s weaker, mortal shell. Liam’s vision began to blur. The walls were closing in, and he saw only the faintest glow at the end of this tunnel. If only Leah could be here. Liam didn’t want to die alone in this dark place.
A thought suddenly entered his mind. Just don’t shine a light in our faces, she had once said. His fingers gripped feebly for the flashlight at his waist. Could it really work again?
Hades towered above, his red, infernal eyes burning like brimstone. His barbed gloves were slick with Liam’s blood, and the shadows became trapped in his wrinkled face as he gleamed. He raised his fists, readying to finish what he’d started.
Liam rolled over and aimed the flashlight. A beam of pure radiance struck Hades head on, and his demonic pupils curled into microscopic beads. He gaped into the light, his awareness completely lost.
This was the opening Liam needed. He scooped up his Remington by the barrel and swung, forcing every ounce of strength he had left into the attack. It would be strong enough for the hardwood stock to reach Hades’s head. Strong enough to crack the soft bone of his rezzer skull. Strong enough to end this nightmare, once and for all.
Hades deflected the blow with ease.
Before Liam could consider what went wrong, a knee struck him in the groin, and he was back on the ground. His mouth filled with blood as he bit down on his tongue.
“Alright, fun’s over,” Hades said, blinking through a blinded haze. “Gotta say, not a bad final move, but you already did the light trick back in Reno. You know what they say. Fool me once, shame of you. Fool me twice, I kinda had it coming.”
Liam sobbed through the pain. He’d been so close…
Hades frowned. “Hey now, don’t look like that. You put up a pretty good fight. Way better than I was expecting. I haven’t had a thrill like that in years. I mean, come on, Liam. We just duked it out at the bottom of the motherfucking world, surrounded by a mob of hollows the likes of which no one’s ever seen…” He raised his fists in the air. “Fucking awesome! Are you really telling me that you didn’t feel something magical in the air, especially with that fucking doomsday clock in the background?” He squinted behind. “Speaking of…”
Liam gazed at the bunker door, and his heart sank. The timer had reached zero. They could enter.
Hades cackled. “Looks like I’m the last man standing on this one, though our other friends want a piece of the action too.”
The hollows had gone berserk with all the spilled blood, and the makeshift barricade was moaning against all the added weight. Wood cracked into plastic, and the barricade caved an inch.
Hades grabbed Liam by the collar and yanked him to his feet. “So it looks like this is where it ends for us. Here’s what I’m gonna do though. I’ll let the hungry ones get a couple chomps in for being good sports, and then you and I will check out this secret room for ourselves. I don’t know about you, but I’m just dying to see what Mother’s put in there.”
The barricade finally snapped, and the hollows poured through.
Hades beamed. “Oh, and if you’re thinking that they’re taking us both down, don’t worry about me. I’ve been in much tighter spots than here.” He nodded at the endless horde of hollows closing in. “Yeah, I’m definitely getting out of this one. Still got a burger to make for myself, after all.” He spun Liam around and dangled his limp form against their attackers. “Any last words before there’s no going back? I promise I’ll make it quicker if they’re cool enough.”
Liam could hardly breathe with all the blood gushing from his tongue, and the hollows were swiftly closing in. A few more seconds, and it was over.
Hades raised his brow. “Hm? Didn’t catch that, Liam.” He leaned in. “Go on, spit it out.”
Poor choice of words, mate. Liam vomited out a mouthful of blood, splattering Hades in the face. The hollows hissed and turned their attention to him.
Hades gawked as the bastards lunged past Liam and went straight for him. “Uh oh.”
Liam used what remained of his strength to wrench himself free. He plummeted to the floor, out of reach of all else. Moans and grunts grew as the hollows piled into Hades. Quickly and quietly, Liam scurried under the crowd and went for the bunker door. Ichor splashed free as Hades fought his new enemies.
Liam sprung to his feet the moment he was clear. With a yank against the latch, the door slid open. He stared through a tiny, transparent portal and watched the carnage unfold behind.
The hollows were dropping left and right to Hades’s cutting blows, but for every one he killed, two more were there to replace. Even he was powerless against such immeasurable strength.
Hades did not go down quickly. Every step of the way, every bite into his body, he spouted another crude insult at his enemies, shit-talking and killing all in sight. The hollows continued without mercy as he spouted a bottomless deluge of profanity-laced attacks.
Then one took a chunk out of his head, and Hades was no more.
